Dan, I've used a few different mixes in containers and I like the sound of your sea soil. The problem with containers is that the system is really too small to set up a true organic soil system in them. People do all sorts of things and may technically get away with it, but I my abilities can't do a completely organic soil and get reliable production, since any "help" and you kid yourself that it is "almost organic". That said, I had some luck with a mixture of 1/3 compost (Black Kow Composted Organic), 1/3 peat & 1/3 perlite in summer but you must watch it doesn't get waterlogged. I know it sounds strange, but raw perlite is "organic". You could put some of those fancy rock dusts in there and dolomitic lime and give it a whirl. Problem is at some point your plants will need the nutrient boost of something like Miracle Gro, which is not organic, but not as bad as some make it out to be, either! There are some Fox Farms hydroponic/organic and Dutch Master hydro organic ones, but these things are really cost intensive and there is no way I could afford to even evaluate them. Tomato-Tone is organic and you can use some of it (the affordable option I would use) but a lot of experimentation is necessary to get it right in a bucket. Those are the tools I would use. There are others that are more expert than I am in this forum on organic methods in a container, but the problem is that ingredients and climates can vary enough that a lot of experimentation is necessary anyway and it is a bit much to ask of a container considering the nutrient demands of a big tomato plant. And a bigger contaner ( say, 25 gallons) can be costly to fill with organic nutrients only. There are other much more economic ways to go if you drop the requirement of deriving all nutrition from "organic" sources, for example pine mulch, etc, is cheap but offers no nutrition so it doesn't get you anywhere nutrient wise, though it might help you save on perlite. I can't answer whether your tap is appropriate for your plant, even knowing the pH is 7.5. That's because it will be the interaction among the tap, soil ingredients and amendments that determine the pH of the container. For example, if your soil starts on the acid side which it likely will it needs to be neutralized with some lime, but you can do what I do ... put less in and water with alkaline water for a while. Clearly that is not an optimal situation but to be honest my plants do fine despite all the issues with pH, and my tap is pH 7.7. But this is a fragil relationship and the only way to now for sure is to pH test your soil while you grow toget the hang of what's happening, if you are really enthusiastic. Just because it works for me, btw, doesn't mean it will work for everyone. We get lots of rain here and that frequently washes trhough soil mixesand I purposely open the tops wide to encourage that. No residue builds up from the tap or any of my not-organic supplements due to the rain. The common wisdom of hydroponics of a vegetative and a reproductive period fertilization schemes doesn't seem very pronounced to me when growing the tomato for the long haul. To be perfectly honest, I think all these mantras about vegetative stages and drastic changes during flowering stages are geared towards high value crops LOL. Really with tomato plants you want to keep the nitrogen at a baseline, low in all of my scenarios. You are not growing vines, they get quickly unmanageable for indeterminates and make few tomatoes, and most everyone here seems to agree that being pretty stingy with nitrogen is the way to go. That's the opposite of what you've done. When I grow my tomatoes, my seedlings have only 1/2 to 2/3 the nitrogen the producing plants do, so my nitrogen rate actually increases for me. At the end I back off though because the plants get less productive and unmanageable so there's a lot of give and take. Hope that helps a little, because nothing is as easy as it seems, so most people find something that works and get pretty stuck to it. Cheers PC

I've grown an extensive rainforest of over 400 local area species, including Lemon Myrtle and other Backhousia, under eucalypts - ironbark, gums, etc. and used several large truckloads of fresh tree lopper mulch, all with maximum benefit! Only downside is that eucalypts will take all the moisture and fertiliser they can steal from your intended use for your plants. And it can inhibit growth in some planted species such as fruit trees. Again, a greedy need for nourishment they don't really need. I never had myrtle rust, but did have the brownish colouring on older leaves under shade. No leaf drop, no treatment either. Please work with your natural flora and don't chop it down! If you are concerned about fire risk, that's a different matter, but growing dry rainforest (scrub) species around the house will give some protection because of the high moisture content and less oil in the foliage. Marjorie, SE Qld.

Queen Vic is so slow growing... any injury takes a long while to show up :/ if you've only just bought it, the damage could've been done in the shop - either it's been sitting around for some weeks/months getting watered daily, or it was on a dark shelf for too long... etc Our existing longtermers are usually in some form of rehabilitation :) they grow thru phases of going black then struggling along. Not keen on their chances of going "30-40yrs"... In recent weeks I've added a couple more small plants, bought each from different shops... ones I've fetched from "recent stock" (aka full trays for choice) seem to be doing better than the sorrier "leftover" - this runt seems to have gone yellow, even though they're all on same windowsill atm Rehab is usually to dig them out of their pots, let them lie barerooted for a week then replant into fresh dry cacti mix. Then leave under eave, don't water for a month :)

I fight fungus all the time, in the summers especially. I get some gooey crud every year, and also the anthracose. And mold is now part of my house decoration. (not really!) I use copper solution a lot. It works well on most of my fungal infections. Since wind will blow any spores, some of which I do not see, I spray all nearby plants whether they look infected or not. If infected, I cut off damaged leaves and spray the plant down. All my plants are outdoors, many planted in the ground. So I can't move them out of the sun and I can't keep them dry. None have been burned and the solution does not hurt the plants. I repeat after 4-5 days. I don't always win the battle. And sometimes I don't try. These Aloe maculata are all infected, so I am pulling them all out. I had treated this patch of Aloes last year. After the Hurricane Irma covered it up with leaves and palm tree boots, the fungus showed up everywhere. I uncovered a real mess. It was like an incubator. I'll pull them all and treat the area for the future. And this Aloe dorotheae looked bad! I had some pups rooted, so I just replaced it. I don't know if Anthracnose crosses species to infect. Maybe there are variants of the fungus. But virtually every mango tree in our neighborhood is infected. The fruit looks ugly, but it is edible. The trees are not huge and could be treated, but no one seems to bother. Good luck with your battle! I do hope you can save your plants!